Mozambique and the UK Sign Memorandum to expand energy access

The Mozambican Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Pedro Couto, and the British Minister of International Development, Nicholas Hurd signed a memorandum of understanding this month, in Maputo, in the area of solar power and other renewable energies.

The purpose of the memorandum is to create a partnership between the two governments to promote a more active market in renewable energies and expand access to solar power in the more remote rural areas.
 

The memorandum is part of the British government’s “Energy Africa” campaign which seeks to speed up universal access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, through expanding the use of solar power. According to a British government press release, this will be achieved “through removing regulatory and political obstacles to expansion of the market, and better coordination of support from donors to the sector as a whole”.

The memorandum, Pedro Couto said, “draws attention to the importance of this link in the national energy system, and of the great possibilities which are currently being opened with the technological advances in the area of renewable energies and solar power, which could allow us to produce these forms of energy at lower costs”. Couto adds Mozambique has an energy programme that covers all the various forms of electricity generation, both for domestic consumption and for export to other southern African countries. Solar power and other renewables were part of this mix.